


Mary Makes Me Trust in Mofftisson

by wellthengameover



Series: Sherlock Meta [23]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Character Analysis, Meta, Other, Sherlock Meta, TJLC | The Johnlock Conspiracy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-01 23:53:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5225960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellthengameover/pseuds/wellthengameover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Transcribed from <a href="http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/my-sherlock-meta">my meta blog on tumblr</a>. Much more there.</p></blockquote>





	Mary Makes Me Trust in Mofftisson

Either this show is terrible or brilliant - and not even just “gay or trash,” but that either there are so many plot holes that it doesn’t hang together or all the things that you _think_ are plot holes are actually clues.

And I probably would’ve said plot holes not clues, but then they gave us Mary, and now I will never doubt again. I’m not talking about the Mary-being-Moran-means-we’ll-get-Johnlock thesis. I’m talking specifically about _Mary:_ her character makes me trust that everything in this show is planned out in excruciating detail.

There’s an inherent problem with _any_ Mary Morstan type character (and by that I mean a main character that joins the story halfway through): when you write a story with some sort of adventure plot or subplot, you take the skills needed to defeat the bad guys and divide them among the main characters. Once you’ve got all those traits divided up, it’s hard to write in any more important team-player characters because they’re redundant. It’s possible (Luna Lovegood?), but it’s difficult, and it’s especially difficult in a story that has been set up to have very few characters, like  _Sherlock_ is. Imagine a crazy AU where Mary’s a good guy ex-assassin: Mary’s clever, but we’ve already got Sherlock for that. Mary’s a great shot, but we’ve already got John for that. Mary might have skills that Sherlock and John don’t, but the narrative has told us those aren’t necessary skills for this story because they got along for two seasons just fine without them. So I looked at good-guy Mary and was like “What is the point of you?”

I’ve heard a lot of people say they really liked Mary before HLV, and that just floors me. I loathed her pretty much immediately:

> MARY: I agree I’m the best thing that could have happened to you.

That was the moment I was like “Oh… I’m not going to like you, am I?” Mary in TEH and TSoT is a person who thinks the only way to be strong is to put down everyone around her, even as “jokes.”

So Mary’s there when Sherlock and John first meet again. Everyone was really looking forward to them meeting again and it’s such _their_ moment and she’s just this spare person around when you don’t really need a spare person around. I’m not even talking in a romantic sense. It’d be just as bad if Molly or Anderson or any other character were there: it’s not about _them._ Like: Go away. Why are you here?

And on the one hand, it’s not like it’s Mary’s fault that Sherlock’s interrupting John’s proposal (actually it is - there’s no way the timing of Sherlock coming home and John and Mary’s engagement was a coincidence - but the audience doesn’t know that yet so it doesn’t count). On the other hand, _she’s not a real person._ The writers decide what happens and whether she’s in a scene. Why did they put her in this scene when it’s just like “Why are you here?” Why did they put her in a scene that was supposed to be all about Sherlock and John?

Then Mary continues by being seemingly sweet but actually being the least supportive fiance ever:

>   
> 
> 
> JOHN: Can you believe his nerve?  
>  _(Smiling, Mary turns to him.)_  
>  MARY: I like him.  
>  JOHN: What?  
>  MARY _(shrugging and still smiling)_ : I like him.

She likes Sherlock, so she’s different from all John’s other girlfriends, so she’s going to stick around. You’re supposed to find this charming and be immediately endeared to her, but I was like “No. You are acting like a backstabbing twelve year-old who just found a ‘cooler friend.’” But I thought I was _supposed_ to support Mary here, and that just made me dislike her all the more. I was like “Great. This is the 'Strong Female Character’ (which is terrible term, that’s why I’m using it in quotes). Joy.”

And there’s the really unpardonable ones in TSoT:

Fibbing is what a five year-old does. If you want to call a grown man out on his lies, you call it lying. There’s a nasty barb in this put-down from pretty much every conceivable angle - Mary should teach a course on how to make the people who care about you feel like crap - but the big one for me is the fibbing bit.

I’m not even talking about the horns. I was like “Am I supposed to find it cute that she’s sending them out on a playdate? Because I don’t.” This is repulsive to me. I just loathed her at this point. [She is _so_ patronizing to both of them, particularly Sherlock](http://curlyfuchuck2.tumblr.com/post/75253176654/mary-mary-quite-contrary). Like Sherlock and John aren’t capable of organizing their own friendship and need her help. I feel ill.

Apparently most people noticed these things on a rewatch after we found out Mary was an assassin, but I noticed them the first time around and was completely grossed out by this character. So I despised Mary way before she shot Sherlock, but I thought the narrative was telling me I was _supposed_ to like her. And then, of course, Mary turns out to be Moran. So all the things that I hated about Mary the whole time were _supposed_ to be tells to her darker nature - not just that she’s an assassin, but that [she’s a psychopath](http://ifyouhaveenoughnerve.tumblr.com/post/77363398901/penitence-paradox-and-psychopathy-why-mary-is-a-bit) and a villain. The things I hated about Mary weren’t supposed to be “sweet” or “sassy” or “funny” or “supportive;” they were supposed to be terrible and manipulative and patronizing and demeaning. They weren’t accidents and bad writing; they were clues and really good writing. Now I love those things because I’m like “Oh my god, Mary is the perfect villain.”

Because with most surprise villains, when the audience finds out they’re a villain, their character is totally different from when they were pretending to be nice. _But Mary’s isn’t_ :

I love this line because it just shows [Mary’s level of utter disdain for Sherlock](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97359159912/how-mary-feels-about-sherlock). She’s basically like “Sherlock, I’m going to count to three and then you’d better go to your room.” It really [connects her incredibly patronizing behavior that we’d seen in TEH and TSoT](http://curlyfuchuck2.tumblr.com/post/75253176654/mary-mary-quite-contrary) to her villain-y-ness. She’s _not_ a different person now that she’s a villain; she was  _always_ a villain and it always showed in the way she treated John and Sherlock.

And it was all planned and the things I thought were bad writing were actually clues. And that is why I shall never doubt again.

And you know what? I’ve yet to see anything that disproves this. I’ve yet to find anything in this show that I don’t think can be explained. God, people are going to say a lot of shit about that and probably send me a long list of weird plot points. But actually, I hope you do because I think they _are_ explainable and that’s how we figure the story out. You say “WTF, this is odd,” and then you’re like “Okay, what could explain this?” For example:

The cabbie recognizes Sherlock on sight in ASiB, but General Shan mistakes John for Sherlock in TBB… whoops, [that’s a plot point](http://loudest-subtext-in-television.tumblr.com/post/79041637086/m-theory-the-blind-banker).

Mycroft has a weird and pointless toothache in TGG… whoops, [that’s a clue](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/98950214132/jim-not-mycroft-texts-sherlock-and-john-in-tgg).

Jim gives unnecessary little glances around at the pool in TGG… whoops, [that’s a plot point](http://couldntpossiblycomment.tumblr.com/post/100559217515/jumping-on-that-mary-is-moran-bandwagon-for-a-sec).

They just completely dropped those assassins from TRF… [or not](http://finalproblem.tumblr.com/post/90723197150/the-sign-of-three-plus-one).

We have two Morans… oh wait, [both are canon](http://redpantsandjam-archive.tumblr.com/post/90791848239/lord-moran-not-sebastian-but-augustus).

The wedding telegrams in TSoT are pointless and weird… [or not](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/101881129887/stella-and-ted-is-jim).

Janine’s extraordinarily easily manipulated in HLV… whoops, [that’s a plot point](http://deducingbbcsherlock.tumblr.com/post/82225015089/she-wouldve-needed-a-confidante).

Sherlock seems overly upset about a dog that died thirty years ago… oh wait, [Redbeard is “The Other One.”](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/98347033687/redbeard-is-the-other-one)

John ought to be plotting against Mary in HLV… oh wait, [he is](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97682234962/john-read-the-flash-drive).

 _Every single thing_ that I’ve thought “That’s a little weird,” even in passing, has turned out to be a clue. In ASiB, Irene says “Jim Moriarty gave me a lot of advice about how to play the Holmes boys,” and _the first time I watched it_ , I was like “That’s odd. That implies that Jim considers Sherlock and Mycroft to be of equal importance. Why would he think that? Why does he even know who Mycroft is? Shouldn’t Irene have said  'Jim Moriarty gave me a lot of advice about how to play Sherlock Holmes and his brother?’” But it was [a clue](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97328231152/how-we-know-mycroft-is-under-jims-thumb).

If you’re still concerned, I would read [this](http://warmth-and-constancy.tumblr.com/post/102037329440/id-like-to-point-out-in-light-of-the-anxiety) or [this](http://welovethebeekeeper.tumblr.com/post/100899888713/just-a-reminder-or-maybe-a-new-piece-of-information) or [this](http://loudest-subtext-in-television.tumblr.com/post/79041544289/m-theory-mycroft-moriarty-and-magnussens-shared).

**Author's Note:**

> Transcribed from [my meta blog on tumblr](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/my-sherlock-meta). Much more there.


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